Several thousand Ethiopians protested against the government sponsored meetings held this weekend across North America. High Government officials from Ethiopia were in attendance at many of these meetings held in Washington DC, Columbus, Toronto and Seattle among others.

In Washington DC, Minister of Education Demeke Mekonen, Ethiopian Ambassador to the US Girma Birru and Berhane Gebre Christos former ambassador to the US and considered by many to be the real man running the show at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were in attendance.

The rally organized by opposition members in Washington DC was one of the largest. According to some reports, the meeting in Washington DC was forced to be cancelled due to the huge protest by Ethiopian opposition members. But official statement from Ethiopian government posted on its embassy's website reads, "Ethiopians and Ethiopian- Americans domiciling in and around the Washington Metro Area have pledged to play their role in realizing Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan /GTP/,in a spirited two-day confab they held at Howard University".

Some Ethiopians were denied access to the conference despite having invitation papers. Ato Fekeda Shewakena told Voice of America radio that he was denied access to the meeting due to his critical writings about the regime in Ethiopia.

The following are some of the videos posted by citizen journalists in several cities in America and Canada.

DC

Toronto

Columbus

This entry was posted on April 11th, 2011 at 02:49 by apache and is filed under Ethiopia.